Roger Donald Dickerson (born August 24, 1934) is a New Orleans pianist, composer, and educator.

Biography

Coming from a musical family, Dickerson began piano lessons at 8 years old. In elementary school he played the

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

baritone A baritone is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the bass (voice type), bass and the tenor voice type, voice-types. It is the most common male voice. The term originates from the ...

and

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

. His experience playing brass instruments continued in college where he played

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

.James E. Hinton. (1977) "New Orleans Concerto". Funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

ideo IDEO () is a design firm, design and consulting firm with offices in the U.S., England, and China. It was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1991. The company's 500 staff uses a design thinking approach to design products, services, environmen ...

url: https://vimeo.com/201343362. Accessed February 12, 2021. From a young age, Dickerson was interested in, and influenced by the music of the

French Quarter The French Quarter, also known as the (; ; ), is the oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans. After New Orleans () was founded in 1718 by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, the city developed around the ("Old Square" in English), a ...

. At 15 Dickerson played in a popular music band called "Roger Dickerson and his Groovy Boys", which played high schools and community centres in his neighbourhood; showing the influence of current New Orleans musical culture. Wallace Davenport, a jazz trumpeter, versed in styes ranging from

traditional jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s, based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent English trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barb ...

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

, was Dickerson's uncle. From Wallace, Dickerson got his first introductions to

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

and

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

. After high school, Dickerson studied music at

Dillard University Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of C ...

earning his

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

in 1955, then a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in music from

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

in 1957 where he studied with Bernhard Heiden. After finishing his Master's degree, Dickerson joined the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. While in the Army, he played in service bands around Europe. After two years in the Army, Dickerson was able to travel to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

, where he studied music with Karl Schiske and

Alfred Uhl Alfred Uhl (5 June 1909 – 8 June 1992) was an Austrian composer, violist, music teacher and conductor. Biography Uhl was born in Vienna and studied with Franz Schmidt at the Vienna Music Academy, receiving a diploma in composition with honour ...

. In 1965 he was elected to the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

. Dickerson has received notable commissions, including a series of concert pieces commissioned by the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

in 1972, and his New Orleans Concerto, commissioned in 1976 by the New Orlean's Centennial Commission. This

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...

serves as the focal point of the 1978 PBS documentary ''New Orleans Concerto''. Dickerson is a professor

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

at Southern University of New Orleans (SUNO). There he was the University Choir Director and Music Coordinator. Along with elements of New Orleans culture, Dickerson's work shows the influence of jazz and blues.

Work list

Orchestral

* Concert Overture (1957) * Essay, band (1958) * Fugue 'n' Blues, jazz orchestra (1959) * A Musical Service for Louis (1972) * Orpheus an' His Slide Trombone (J. Greenberg), 1974–1975) * New Orleans Concerto, for piano & orchestra (1976)

Vocal

* Fair Dillard (J. N. Barnum), SATB (1955) * Music I Heard (C. Aiken), for soprano & piano (1956) * The Negro Speaks of Rivers (L. Hughes), for soprano & piano (1961) * Ps xlix, SATB, timpani (1979) * African-American Celebration (Dickerson), SATB (1984) * Beyond Silence (Dickerson), for soprano, baritone, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani & organ (1986)

Chamber and solo instrumental

* Prekussion, percussion ensemble (1954) * Music for Brass, 2 trumpets, trombone (1955) * Woodwind Trio (1955) * Das neugeborne Kindelein, chorale prelude, organ (1956) * Sonatina, piano (1956) * String Quartet (1956) * Music for String Trio (1957) * Scene, horn, string quartet (1959) * Movement, trumpet, piano (1960) * Sonata, clarinet, piano (1960) * Wind Quintet (1961) * Concert Pieces for Beginning String Players (1972) * Expressions, violin, piano (1983) * Incantation, violin, piano (1983) * Fanfare, 2 trumpets, timpani (1991)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickerson, Roger Donald Living people 1934 births Dillard University alumni Indiana University alumni African-American composers African-American jazz pianists 21st-century African-American musicians 20th-century African-American musicians